The Bravest Sister
by Yours Sincerely Serendipity
Summary: A story about the Black Sisters. Bella comes for Andromeda - Tonks has the chance to call one person fr help - who is it? Rated M to be safe, a bit violent.


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_**Disclaimer: I own nothing, as you know...  
I meant it to be shorter, but oh well... Bella comes for Andromeda sometime between Ted Tonks' death and Teddy Lupin's birth. My favaorite sister has always been Narcissa, though. Anyway, has potential for more, am still pondering...**_

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My sister's laugh was cold; it had always been crueler than Narcissa's cackle but I barely recognized it now. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. She was in my front hall, laughing; she knew Dora was here – she must – or she wouldn't be waiting for me to come meet her. She kept laughing, high, cold, and cruel. I could see her face as I had last seen it, contorted with rage at her trial, predicting Voldemort's second reign. My eyes blinked automatically. Ted – my Teddy – had been killed just last week: it must have been her. She had such a memory for faces, for what would terrorize people. If ever there was a person who'd been constructed to be a Death Eater, it was my sister. I took a step towards the door that separated us,  
"I can hear you," She whispered, so coldly it pierced through the door, cutting air. Shaking myself, I flung the door open and gasped.

Bella, last time I had seen her, had been beautiful. The heavy lids – one of the few features we didn't share – had blinked obnoxiously; and she had given me a glare before being dragged out. Her skin was sallow now; she held the vestiges of Black aristocracy, but her beauty was gone. In its place, black eyes and a curled upper lip; she seemed to take up the entire hall. She was my sister; it always took me a few moments to remember to be terrified. Now, all it took was a glance. She was sneering at me; maybe that was what her smile looked like by now. I thought of the Longbottoms – out of all her victims, they stuck in my head the most vividly – and remembered Dora upstairs.  
"Bellatrix," I said, my voice came out stronger than I had expected. She giggled at me,  
"_Drommy_, it's been so long," She gave a little snarl in the back of her throat; we used to call her wolverine at home, when we were little. She flicked her wand, waited, and smiled at me,  
"My niece is here, how lovely…" She murmured, to herself, "About time for a family reunion…"  
"Where's Narcissa, then?" I asked. Bella smiled again, baring her teeth,  
"Narcissa is soft." She said conclusively, shaking herself as if to get rid of our younger sister. She cocked her head, and, without any movement or sound, she had me on the ground. I heard my wand rolling across the floor. There was no pain; only paralysis. I wasn't entirely sure the latter was preferable.

She was standing over me in a second. Bella had always moved fluidly. There was nothing I could do against her; Bella had always bettered me, and I was older than I had been last time we had met in battle. Bella seemed to have transcended age; she was dark naturally but her skin glowed, sickly pallor surrounding her. Her hair, once straight and well groomed like mine, was wild and tangled. Once, we could hardly be distinguished from one another: there was no doubt now.  
"What have you done to yourself, Bella?" I asked, willing Dora to wake up, to leave, or for Remus to arrive. "How many people have you tormented?"  
"Shut up, Drommy!" She screeched; another flick of the wand and I flew into the wall. My head hit the wall; everything went black on impact. I came around to a sharp sensation in my side, as Bella kicked me with a sharp-toed boot. She had worn those since she had turned fifteen and their mother had bought them for her. I moaned as her foot made impact with a kidney. She laughed,  
"Does it matter, sister? How many I have maimed… when all that matters right now-" She leant close to my ear and kicked me viciously again, "-is that it's _your_ turn… again. You won't get away this time." There was a thump from upstairs. Bella smiled again.  
"Oh, Drommy, did you think you could protect the half-blood brat forever?"  
"Your own sister, Bella, don't you remember when we used to be-" Bella yelled in fury and I was in agony – at her hands, once again – my screams echoed around the hall. Dora and the baby she carried flew from my mind as my thoughts turned to Teddy. The curse lifted off, and I sobbed breathlessly on the floor.

Bella was circling me like a vulture,  
"You don't understand, Drommy. There's no mercy in me, there never has been really…" She trailed off, twirling her wand like a baton in the air, "Remember that first year we caught, when we had you with us-" I screamed again under her spell. The boy's face swam around my head; the poor boy Bella and her friends had tortured half to death in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, after their exams, before they'd runaway to join their master. When the pain stopped, the hall was dark. She had extinguished all the lights.  
"Teddy screamed when I tortured him," Bella said, as if she were talking about dinner, "He begged me not to kill you, and that mongrel you call a human. He told me I could do anything to him, if only I just wouldn't kill his _poor, adored Dromeda and Dora,_" She used her awful baby voice, the one she'd perfected on that first year. My heart burst, thinking of Teddy's nicknames for us. I closed my eyes; they flew open and I was eye-to-eye with my older sister. She smiled, twisting her head from side to side, a hyena regarding its prey.  
"I tortured him until-" Her voice lowered to a whisper, "He couldn't. Even. Speak." I whimpered, thinking of his last words, "All that begging, in _vain_." She tilted her head once more and sent me hurtling into another wall. My lip split on impact with the floor.

"Bella…"  
"Going to beg, _baby sister_?" She snarled, walking slowly towards me. "Going to beg for little wee Dora's life? And Dora's husband, the half-breed?" I practiced breathing so that I could barely feel my lip. I crawled to the wall and sat up, making noises through my mouth in spite of myself. Her feet cracked against the floor. I could see her hands: one was clawed, twisted at her side, the other spun the wand like candy floss, lightly and with sugary sweetness. Her wrists were bonier than ever – they flicked and swished with the elegance born of the House of Black. I breathed in more air, willing her to disappear. She came closer and closer. My arm extended to her, glowing in the light of the spell she used. She held out her own arm, a skull and snake emblazoned on the skin. Mine was dark, the skin emitting the glow of an unMarked arm: healthy. I never thought I would see a Dark Mark again after the last war. Bella smirked at my arm and tutted,  
"Such a choice to make…" She murmured pitifully. I screamed as a cut appeared on my arm from the inside of my elbow to my wrist. Bella smiled, an actual, genuine smile, "Ah, blood. It was beautiful, your blood, Drommy, until you added that Mudblood husband of yours," My arm was pouring blood onto the floor; rivers of scarlet liquid saturated my floor. Bella was still talking, "I let him bleed a bit to0, Teddy," She said softly, this time right into my ear, "Like that boy," She whispered, "Who just screamed and screamed. Teddy cried for you, before he stopped saying anything at all. Will you cry for him, Drommy?" She raised her wand and I was screaming again; the Cruciatus Curse preys on pain already in you: my lip and my arm seemed to glow red with the pain that emanated from them,  
"Poor Drommy," Bella yelled, easing the curse off, "Alone and in pain… seems as though little Dora hasn't come to fight for you,"  
"Thank Merlin," I murmured, barely audibly, through gritted teeth.

Another bought of pain before she walked away, pacing again. As we had grown up, the sadistic side Bella had always displayed little signs of had grown, exploited by the older boys in her house and built up by her husband and their master over the years. My arm was still seeping blood, and the room was growing faint. Bella turned and raised her wand again-  
But there was a blast of light from the door-  
A cry-  
"Bella- NO!" I screamed, watching Dora, who was all belly by then, fly backwards.  
"I'll deal with her later," Bella said, smiling at me, "Once you're gone," She said the last word like a child opening a Christmas present. Something jabbed at my side. _My wand_. She had forgotten, was it possible? I moved to pick it up, without thinking.

Bella caught the movement and summoned the wand. She grinned, raising her wand-  
"Bella, think about what you're doing!" The exclamation was strangled. I recognized the voice. It was the same voice of mercy that had saved the first year boy. It was the same voice that had begged me to stay, because its owner was too afraid of Bella to leave.  
"Cissy," Bella acknowledged coolly, "You shouldn't be here-"  
"Neither should you!" Narcissa snarled; I had never heard my younger sister angry, I had never even seen her duel. "Our own sister, Bella," She said, tears in her voice,  
"No sister of mine-!" The argument would have continued, except that Bella stopped talking abruptly. She pulled her sleeve back. In the light of Narcissa's wand, I saw her Mark shimmering black in the dark. Narcissa – arms bared, she was in her nightgown, _how had she known?_ – had a Mark too, in the same place, but it wasn't glowing.  
"You win this time, Drommy," She muttered, sounding as though her Christmas present had been snatched out of her hands. "Not next time – I _promise_."

Narcissa ran to her niece, across the hall. As she ran, the light flooded back into the room, and I saw Dora, lying motionless. Narcissa woke her and led her to me, sitting Dora down against the wall next to me,  
"You were right to call me, Nymphadora," Narcissa said, ignoring my look of shock and plunging her wand into my cut. I screamed again, but the warmth of the healing charm overtook the pain in a second. I had forgotten her forte, Narcissa: healing things, in every class, no matter what it was. I had watched as she'd patched the boy up, before we'd modified his memory. She pointed her wand at my lip and mended it. Dora had an arm around my shoulder.  
"Can you get rid of all this blood?" Narcissa asked her, Dora shook her head,  
"Only Mum can do those spells," Narcissa gave her a smile, softening her face; Narcissa was only ever beautiful when she smiled,  
"I know she can. I can heal, she can clean, and Bella can… get whatever she wants," She finished, the smile fading into an unbecoming scowl. She looked at me.  
"I'm sorry, Drommy. I'm sorry I didn't come with you, all those years ago," I nodded, eyes wide, as my sister flung her arms around me.  
"Why did you come?" I asked, amazed that I could speak without pain piercing through my mouth.  
"Nymphadora sent a Patronus, and Lucius convinced me to come,"  
"_Lucius_?" I asked incredulously. Narcissa smiled at me again,  
"Yes, _Lucius_," She replied, mimicking me, "He's never been able to stand Bella very much, for all his facades." She grimaced anew, "For all of mine," She added, sounding sour.  
"Oh, Cissy," Narcissa shook her head,  
"I must go, Drommy. I cannot be found here, please, say nothing. If it gets back to-" She stopped, not daring to say it,  
"But, won't Bella-"  
"I can handle Bella," She responded grimly, "Lucius will protect me, if it comes to that…" She looked me right in the eye, "We're going to lose this war, Drommy," She glanced at Dora before returning her gaze to me, "I don't want Draco to go to Azkaban, or Lucius, or… me. I'm going to think of something, Drommy, and when I do, and when its done and we've lost – when I have saved my family, we can be one again." She grabbed my hand and Dora's. Dora smiled at her aunt. I smiled at my sister. "I hope you name the baby Teddy, Nymphadora," And with that, Narcissa rose and spun elegantly on spot, disappearing in the next second.

I realized then that my baby sister is braver than I had ever given her credit for.


End file.
